On Christ and Coral

Ensconced in this ancient stone, alongside the coral, are remains of a few slugs and snails, known as gastropods. Beside the gastropods are some Bryozoa—that is, moss animal invertebrates that lived in colonies. These were, it seems, food for the gastropods. Alive as these animals once were, their habitat was also alive. This branch of coral from the Ordovician age, in fact, is itself made up of skeletonized colonies of once–living creatures. Coral, as I see it, is an uncategorizable thing: it is tree, animal, and mineral at once. But can we add one more category to this already impressive list? “He is sun, stars, fire, water, wind, dew, cloud, cornerstone, and rock,” said your servant St. Dionysius the Areopagite. “He is all things and not one being among other beings.” Do I therefore hold not merely your beauty in my hand, good Lord, but you? After all, as St. Paul insisted, “the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).